Licensed spectrum, also sometimes called private spectrum because the spectrum is controlled by a private entity who purchased the license to use the spectrum, is normally a costly resource given the current high price of wireless spectrum licenses. Accordingly, for cost and potentially bandwidth availability reasons it may be desirable to avoid or minimize the use of licensed spectrum.
Publicly accessible spectrum, e.g., spectrum which may be used by the public for WiFi communications, may be free to the public. However, given that the spectrum is publicly accessible, it may be subject to heavy use and/or interference. Depending on location, interference and other factors including load, publicly accessible spectrum may not be reliable at some time and/or locations but may be capable of supporting relatively high data rates at other time and locations.
While cost and potential bandwidth make publicly available spectrum attractive for some applications, reliance on it may be unsuitable for applications where reliable communications are to be supported in a predictable manner.
In view of the above discussion, it should be appreciated that it would be desirable if methods and/or apparatus could be developed which could take advantage of the reliability of licensed spectrum while offering the cost and/or throughput advantages sometimes available through the use of publicly accessible spectrum.